Biggie-sized pic (Unlocking Mobile) of the Treo 750
Biggie-sized pic of the Treo 750
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds This is the first shot we’ve ever seen of a Treo without an external antenna. And when we say “first,” we mean seventh this month.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Palm chooses September to announce new Treo
Filed under: Cellphones, HandheldsOne might argue we’ve collected enough intelligence at this point to make an official announcement ourselves, but according to a Reuters report, Palm has committed to unveiling at least one of its next-gen Treos for reals (without our help) next month. From the way Palm is talking, it sounds like this debut will be for the Windows Mobile-based UMTS model first mentioned for Vodafone in July, though we’re guessing Cingular’s Treo 750 isn’t far behind (right, Palm?). Other than that tidbit, Palm’s asking us all to patiently wait for the September 12 when the press releases start flying — but one thing we can say with near certainty is that there won’t be a stub antenna anywhere in sight.[Thanks, Dave]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Cornell researchers building video projector on a chip
Filed under: Cellphones, Displays We’ve seen plenty of tiny projector concepts over the past couple of years, but some researchers at Cornell University are taking this idea to its logical extreme by building a whole display on a single chip. The crux of their idea is basing the device on carbon-fiber, since silicon proves too brittle to handle the 60,000 times a second line-scanning frequency of a traditional video display. Carbon-fiber, on the other hand, can withstand all sorts of abuse and keep on scanning. The chip design has an tiny 400 x 500 micron mirror supported by two carbon-fiber hinges, an array of which — one for each horizontal line — would be all that’s needed to scan lasers across a screen for a full-fledged video display. Supposedly all this can be squeezed into a form factor small enough to power a cellphone-based projector, and the carbon-fiber springs might even work as a way to harvest energy from user movement for powering small electronic devices. Sign us up for both, please.[Via Slashdot]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part XII – Kiloo exec extolls virtues of crack cocaine business model
Filed under: Cellphones, GamingWe usually don’t have to wait long for some tech industry exec to give us new fodder for CE-Oh no he didn’t!, and Karl Woods, pusherman/Executive Vice President of sales and marketing for mobile developer and publisher Kiloo delivered the goods earlier this week. He decided we should witness the strength of his street knowledge by comparing his job of marketing mobile games to, and we’re quoting here, “the crack cocaine model.” (Could someone tell him that his company is named “Kiloo,” not “Kilo”?) Says Woods: “You offer the customer a free rock, and they get hooked. That’s what we’re going to have to do with the 90 per cent. But everyone has to do it, the whole industry has to try and crack this, or we’ll just keep fighting over that 10 percent.”We feel you, Karl. All the crackhouses on our block learned years ago how to stop fighting over that 10 percent and go after the mass market. [Via MoCoNews]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
O2 Xda Cosmo among the first HTC’s Excaliburs
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds By now we’re all pretty well versed in what we can expect from HTC’s Excalibur in the many incarnations it’s due to begin taking, but it looks like O2 Germany will be among the first to have the honor. Dubbed the Xda Cosmo, this slim if bulbous looking portable doesn’t yet appear to have a date affixed to O2′s intentions for release in Deutschland. It does look like the marketing materials are well underway though, so we hope it shouldn’t be too much longer before you’ll pull this sword from the stone.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
The $500 GSM rotary phone
Filed under: Cellphones Sure, we’re guessing the belt holster is a bit unwieldy, but the decades-old chassis on Spark Fun’s “portable” rotary phone is probably every bit as sturdy as the Symbol MC70′s for one-quarter the cash. We’ll take ours in beige, please.[Via The Raw Feed]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Palm Treo 700wx for Sprint in the wild
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds The 700wx looks to be trickling into Sprint retail locations as we speak, and it seems everything we’ve been told about the device so far has been spot-on: it really is bound for Sprint, the addition of the “x” to the name is legit, and it rocks double the RAM (much to the chagrin of plain ol’ 700w users everywhere), though we weren’t necessarily expecting the big, scary floating head on the box. Still no solid word on an official availability date, but stores who’ve received them have apparently been instructed to keep them under lock and key until Sprint proper starts offering them, meaning the previously-reported August 27 date for business customers still seems perfectly plausible. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a Treo 750 rumor mill to attend to.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
PalmSource and Access drop more info on their ALP OS
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds The recent months have been dark days indeed for the Palm OS, especially for its spiritual successor, codenamed Access Linux Platform (ALP). Palm is letting its license to the oft-delayed OS expire this December, and we haven’t heard of too many device manufacturers stepping in its place. The good news is that Access-owned PalmSource hasn’t been just sitting around a doing nothing, and they recently hosted a one day mini-conference at LinuxWorld to show off their wares so far. Apparently the core OS is fairly completed, and PalmSource is mainly working on the bundled applications that will ship with the OS. Classic Palm OS emulation is said to work perfectly well, even with the requirement by the OS to scale those 320 x 320 native applications to ALP’s preferred QVGA touchscreen resolution. There were plenty of Haier N60 flip-phones on hand running the chosen res, along with a few prototypes with VGA screens and a keyboard — a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, the only pics allowed were of the developer tools running a virtualized version of ALP in Ubuntu — a boon to developers, but no device-based eye candy for us. The biggest enhancement so far is multitasking afforded by the Linux base, though sexy features in the NetFront browser, new HotSync interoperability standards, and a newfound return to Palm OS looks of yore seem quite popular as well. In fact, with the OS’s ability to be skinned with SVG graphics, Palm could conceivably make a branded version of the OS that would be quite familiar to old users, and dub it the Palm OS 6 we’ve always wanted. PalmSource says they’re still on track to deliver the OS to licensees at the end of the year, with the first ALP products finally emerging next spring.[Via BrighthandRead | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Finn throws to win at World Cellphone Throwing championship
Filed under: Cellphones This year's Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships have come and gone, friends, and we're pleased to report to you the winningest of the cellphone throwers that came from the world over to test their metal tossing mettle. Second place in the freestyle event went to Dutchman Elie Rusthoven, who was almost disqualified for throwing his phone out of bounds, but mustered a silver by performing a phone juggling act that won over the judges (seriously, we can't make this stuff up). But it was a gentleman by the name of Lassi Etelatalo, a Finnish javelin thrower, that lobbed his Nokia to victory at a distance of 89m, or about 291 feet -- just shy of the lengthy of one football field, and plenty enough to crush Ville Piippo's standing record of 82.55 meters. (First place in the women's event went to Eija Laakso, who tossed hers 50.83 meters.) Go long man, real long -- like, Naomi Campbell long. More pics after the break.[Via Reuters] Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com